Service of the Word and Holy Communion

Official Church Documents

The governing principles for receiving communion outside Mass were published by the Vatican in the 1973 document Eucharistae Sacramentum (HCWEOM: Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside of Mass), which is not currently available in a full English translation on the web. In 1988, the Vatican issued a Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest.

In the USA, a ritual book for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest was published in 1996 and revised in 2007. The US Bishops have clarified that this is not meant to be used for weekday celebrations, but that in certain circumstances, communion may be distributed on weekdays in the absence of a priest, following the ritual given in HCWEOM.

In the UK, the Liturgy Office published in 1996 an interim ritual text for use in England and Wales. The Liturgy Office website indicates that a revised version was intended to be published in 2008, in a book also containing other services that could be celebrated in parishes on weekdays. This project does not seem to have seen the light of day.

Following the adoption of the revised English text of the Roman Missal in 2011, existing editions of these liturgical texts will now be out of step with the responses used at Mass.

In the Diocese of Menevia, Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB prohibited the distribution of communion at weekday services in the absence of a priest in his pastoral letter for March 2006 (scroll down to find it).

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Documents by Gareth Leyshon

In 2002, I wrote this essay on DAILY COMMUNION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.

In June 2011, at a meeting of all Cardiff's archdiocesan clergy, I asked Archbishop-elect George Stack whether, until new official texts are available, we should use the existing texts for the Service of the Word and Holy Communion, or modify them to come into line with the changes to the Mass. Archbishop Stack indicated that we should make the appropriate changes. For the convenience of any parish requiring such modified texts, I offer here:

Leaders' texts for a Revised Text of the Service of the Word and Holy Communion;

Leaders' texts for a Revised Text of the Service of the Word and Holy Communion integrated with Morning or Evening Prayer;

A Participants' Leaf;et.